Experience two UNESCO World Heritage Sites on this 8-night journey through Botswana.

Safari in Moremi Game Reserve

Moremi Game Reserve

The Moremi Game Reserve is known for its different ecosystems. The landscapes change from deep waterways and floodplains to open savannah and forests which attracts a huge range of wildlife.

You may see lions, buffaloes, wildebeest, giraffes, zebras and impalas. If you’re lucky you might spot a cheetah or a leopard. The highlight for many, though, is seeing the endangered wild dog – they’re exceptional hunters and you often see large packs together. The area is also home to the rare lechwe and sitatunga antelopes as well as big herds of elephants.

Game drives will take you to see all this, visiting different spots like Douglas Island, Maya Pan and Dead Tree Island, which is named for its landscape of barren mopane trees, which drowned when the channel changed. At Paradise Pools you may see antelopes drink around the watering holes next to swamps filled with reeds. These islands offer amazing flora and fauna and are popular grazing areas for a variety of animals and birdlife.

As well as game drives, you can join motorboat tours on the lagoons and channels, with chances to spot hippos, crocodiles and lots of colourful birdlife – especially in the spring and summer, when migrant birds are breeding. Fish eagles, crested cranes and the sacred ibis are among the birds that call this area home, and you will get a different perspective when you see it all from the water. Sundowners in the bush as the sun sets is a memory that will stay with you.

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Flying over Botswana's Forever Changing Landscape

Botswana

Flying over Botswana makes you appreciate just how vast it is. Seeing the Okavango Delta from above is an especially humbling experience – it’s so huge and unexplored. There’s the Savute region, Chobe National Park, the Boteti River and all the tiny villages and towns dotted in between. Every flight is unique. You can often see larger wildlife like elephants, buffaloes, hippos and giraffes or you might see lions and leopards, or floods arriving and storms building. The highlight is often landing on ‘bush’ airstrips that are often just gravel or grass in what feels like the middle of nowhere.

Safari Air launched in 1989 to whisk guests between Botswana’s remote Desert & Delta camps, and it’s an incredible way to see the country. The planes are based at Maun airport and depart whenever guests need them. Flights can be anything from 10 to 70 minutes, depending on routes. They’re light aircrafts – Cessna Airvans and Cessna Grand Caravans – fitting between six and 11 people, so they’re about the size of a small bus. You can see the pilot sitting in the front, which is an experience in itself. The pilot conducts a short briefing on the flight before passengers are flown to and in between each destination. For guests who’ve just flown into Johannesburg or Cape Town on a huge Boeing and then landed in Maun, it’s an especially exciting – sometimes overwhelming – experience.

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Helicopter Flight over the Okavango Delta

Okavango Delta

People talk about Botswana as the last true wilderness – of course there are other places in the world that are equally remote, but there aren’t many other safari destinations that feel this wild and cut off. Experience the full remoteness with a helicopter flight over the Okavango Delta. Choose from 30, 45 and 60 minute flights and to make it a little more adventurous, you have the option of flying with the doors off. The unrestricted views are amazing for photography.

An early morning flight reveals the waking wildlife. With unhindered views you can marvel at mighty oxbow rivers and vast networks of channels and lagoons without the presence of mankind. Ask the pilot to fly low and you can virtually skim the fig canopies to get a closer look at the Okavango’s exquisite game. This could include huge crocodile basking on the sun-drenched banks, hippo wallowing in the shallows and spectacular birdlife from great white pelican to diverse species of long necked herons. You’ll often hear the call of a lion roar over the wetlands. Your pilot, a top safari guide will point out where a pride might be roaming or where to capture the best panoramic picture.

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Okavango Delta Safari By Foot and Mokoro

Okavango Delta

Among the lagoons, channels, woodlands and islands of the Okavango Delta, you will be blessed with some of the most incredible wildlife-spotting in Botswana. There are several different ways to experience the region. Among the most popular activities are the walking safaris where being on foot gives you a completely different perspective.

Motorboats take guests to one of the islands to embark on a hike with an armed ranger. As you cruise along the river you might spot hippos, crocodiles or occasionally the rare sitatunga antelope. The morning light on the papyrus plants and water lilies is always beautiful.

Once on the island, you follow the guide in single-file, stopping to see wildlife while learning about the medicinal properties of the plants. It's a good opportunity to see the smaller things that might have been overlooked on a game drive, like the foam nest frog, which produces a fascinating nest in the tree. You can learn so much from even a pile of dung; you can see what the baboons have been scratching at and what the dung beetles have been busy at.

Seeing big game on foot is always special too – it might be an elephant, a buffalo, a giraffe or even a lion. Occasionally you might be lucky enough to see a full pride. Being on foot gives you a completely different perspective of the size of these animals.

The highlight of the delta for many is heading out on a mokoro trip – you’re ‘poled’ through the shallow waterways in a traditional wooden canoe, gliding through reeds and waterlilies as you pass elephants, hippos, crocodiles, fish eagle birds and other wildlife. It’s a really peaceful way to see the channels. Watching the sun set over the water is one of the favourite sights in the delta.

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Helicopter Flight over the Okavango Delta

Okavango Delta

People talk about Botswana as the last true wilderness – of course there are other places in the world that are equally remote, but there aren’t many other safari destinations that feel this wild and cut off. Experience the full remoteness with a helicopter flight over the Okavango Delta. Choose from 30, 45 and 60 minute flights and to make it a little more adventurous, you have the option of flying with the doors off. The unrestricted views are amazing for photography.

An early morning flight reveals the waking wildlife. With unhindered views you can marvel at mighty oxbow rivers and vast networks of channels and lagoons without the presence of mankind. Ask the pilot to fly low and you can virtually skim the fig canopies to get a closer look at the Okavango’s exquisite game. This could include huge crocodile basking on the sun-drenched banks, hippo wallowing in the shallows and spectacular birdlife from great white pelican to diverse species of long necked herons. You’ll often hear the call of a lion roar over the wetlands. Your pilot, a top safari guide will point out where a pride might be roaming or where to capture the best panoramic picture.

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Sleep Out in the Tsodilo Hills

Discover one of the most remote UNESCO World Heritage Sites sleeping out in a camp in the Tsodilo Hills. This sacred area is a significant site for rock art. Available from Nxamaseri Island Lodge, you will depart by boat and then be driven by 4x4 to the sleep out camp. If you wish, for an extra cost, we can arrange a helicopter flight to the camp.

Set above the Kalahari Desert amongst Zambezi teak trees, you will be staying in a traditional Tsodilo pod. Inspired by the dwellings of the bushmen, they have been designed with minimum impact on the environment. Next to the pods is the bathroom with bush toilets and bucket showers.

On arrival, join an interpretive walk along the wilderness trails and watch the setting sun against Male Hill, the highest point in Botswana. As night draws in, your local guides will share stories of the bushmen, the significance of Tsodilo and its ancient rock art. Dinner is served around the fire. The following morning after breakfast there is time to explore the Tsodilo Hills on foot before returning to Nxamaseri Island Lodge.

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Helicopter flight to Tsodilo Hills Sleep Out Experience

For the ultimate transfer, why not take to the skies with a helicopter flight to the Tsodilo Hills sleep out experience? The journey time is just 10-minutes although we strongly recommend extending the flight for an aerial view of the Okavango Pan Handle.

The extended flight gives you the opportunity to see two World Heritage Sites, the Okavango Delta and the Tsodilo Hills. Scenic helicopter transfers can be booked one-way or return.

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